Women in Motosport

CRISTINA GUTIERREZ

NAME Cristina Gutiérrez Herrero
AGE 32 - born in July 24 1991
COUNTRY Spain  
JOB Rallye driver x Dentist 

Gutiérrez debuted in rally raid in 2010 at age eighteen. She was overall runner-up at the 2015 Spanish Off-Road Rally Championship.

Gutiérrez debuted her international rally career in the 2017 Dakar Rally, racing in a modified Mitsubishi Pajero. Gutiérrez's first race was a success. She finished 44th overall and 6th in the T1.S class, in a race where 27% of class entrants did not manage to complete the course. This made her the first woman from Spain to ever finish the off-road classic. In 2018 she finished second in the T1.S class, again driving a Mitsubishi Montero. The Spaniard finished 7th in the T1.2 class in 2019 and 2020, both driving a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross.

In 2021 Gutiérrez competed in the T3.1 lightweight vehicles category on an OT3-01. She became only the second woman ever (after Jutta Kleinschmidt in 2005) to win a Dakar stage, however she retired in stage 8.[12] Her best result was in 2022, when she and co-driver Francois Cazalet finished 3rd in the Light Prototype (T3) category Driving a Red Bull OT3 prototype. In 2022 she finished third in the T3.1 class, becoming the first Spanish female to ever make it. In 2023 Cristina finished 4th in the T3 category, after having many issues in the first week that prevented her from fighting for the first position. Nevertheless, Cristina won the prologue and the last stage of the rally, being the only woman ever do it so after Jutta Kleinschmidt.

The 2024 Dakar Rally proved to be Gutiérrez's crowning moment, as she profited from a late issue for leader Mitch Guthrie to win the event in the T3 category. This result made her the second female Dakar winner, following Jutta Kleinschmidt's success in 2001.

In December 2020 she was announced as the female driver for Lewis Hamilton's Team X44 in Extreme E, partnering with Sébastien Loeb. They finished the season in 2nd behind Rosberg X Racing's Johan Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor. The teams were level on points but RXR were ahead on virtue of their 3 wins to X44's one win.

Loeb and Gutiérrez were re-signed to Team X44 for 2022, for Extreme-E's second season. Team X44, with Gutiérrez and Loeb, ended up winning the second season of Extreme-E championship in the last race.

Gutiérrez moved to McLaren XE for 2024 and will partner Mattias Ekström.

Gutiérrez has also been her country's Women's Off-Road Champion since 2012, and outright vice-champion in the same discipline in 2015 following a series of second places in Spanish Bajas. She won six consecutive times in the Women's Class of the Spanish TT Rally Championship.

In 2021 she became the first female driver to win an FIA World Cup for the Cross-Country Rallies title. She completed the last stage with a broken back.